We arrived in Albuquerque Tuesday evening. Campground is just on the outskirts of town. Very easy to get to town from here on Central Ave aka route 66. We went into old town that evening and had our first taste of the green Hatch, NM chiles that we both love. Then walked around to look in shop windows and enjoy the warm evening air (74degrees at 8pm). Things seemed to close up by 8pm, except for restaurants, especially since this is not considered tourist season yet.

Yesterday we did more exploring on Route 66, which goes all the way thru Albuquerque. Saw a variety of the neighborhoods and the University of NM. Really easy to get around town and has a nice look with a combination of old and new buildings. As with other towns in southwest, most of Albuquerque is low level with muted coloring, other than the business downtown area which is not very big or tall in Northwest standards. University area seems like a smaller version of U district in Seattle. Pretty much the same look of eclectic shops and restaurants.
Very nice setting sun as we walked around campground last evening.

Today we drove the Turquoise Highway #14, the scenic route to Santa Fe. A few very small towns and some that have been abandoned. One town, Madrid, was a ghost town that has now been revived as a small artist town. Really cute stuff and friendly people.

Late lunch in Santa Fe on the terrace of a restaurant overlooking the old town square. Very relaxed lunch with sunshine an just slight breeze. Behind me was a French couple who were just finishing their meal. They were hoping to finish with coffee as the French always do, but alas the restaurant did not offer espresso. So, they ordered only one very strong coffee, black, hoping to make it seem right to them....did not sound very positive.

Don't think we are going to get much of a sunset this evening, clouds do not seem right. Will see, still early, though I should mention we are on mountain time now, so one hour ahead of Seattle.

Oh, we seem to be in final stages of selling house. Have received paperwork from escrow company and getting closer to closing date. Still pending is city sign off on oil tank, but that seems to be just a formality at this point.
Michelle

Last week we decided to take a side trip to San Mateo, Ca to visit Christa and Evan. According to Google, it would be just 600 miles each way. Well, further research at the end of the trip revealed that Google meant as the birds fly. It was more like 823miles each way, a bit more than we expected, oh well. We now know not to trust the Google mileage info, which was an important lesson for us to learn in the beginning of our travels.
We did have a good visit with Christa and Evan, so we were glad that we took the trip. Also had a great lunch with my brother who lives in the area.
While we were gone, we had our new RV awning installed. It is a wonderful thing to have in this sun. It is quite a bit sturdier than the old one, so well worth the $$ and time waiting for it.

Yesterday we took Jessica to a Diamondbacks game in Phoenix. They were playing the SF Giants. Not an exciting game, but the Dbacks did win 6-5 in 12 innings. It was just about 100degrees at game time, so the roof was closed and the AC going full blast. At times it was even a bit too chilly, but we managed....

So, we have a house offer that is currently in process. We are waiting for the inspection paperwork, but not much there to cause problems, according to our realtor. Only issue now seems to be that the oil tank that was decommisioned almost 11 years ago, did not get registered by the company that did it. We have all the paperwork other than the city review piece. May need to get that bit done now and hopefully it will not delay too much now that we are almost done....we are waiting now to see if this can be done as just a sign off or what. Company that did the work was sold 5 years ago, so causes a bit of a snaffu, hopefully not too bad.